Electronic Ignition

[bumbulls 0]

I am thinking of installing electronic ignition to my '72 UK Dec registered TR6. Looking for any advice on which is the best and the best value for money and tips on fitting. Thanks, Andy

[Austin Branson 3]

Hello Andy, I have the Ignitor from the Distributor Doctor. This the second one, the first failed after several years. I also got a coil, HT leads, distributor cap and rotor arm from the same source. Very reliable now. Austin

[pfenlon 81]

If its the Petronix unit, with the flame thrower coil, that Austin is using, it has a very good reputation.

 

I fitted one into my Dual point dizzy with great results, and plan on getting another one for my TR6.

 

Petronix UK are also very helpful, and do back up their product with sound advice.

[barkerwilliams 57]

Andy,

 

There are electronic points - £40'sh.

 

Next step is electronic distributor with selectable advance curves.

 

Then there are electronic distributors with coils, bells and whistles. Many hundreds of ££s.

 

It depends on your budget and what you are trying to achieve. Many will tell you the car has lasted 40 years on points so where is the problem- stick with what you've got.

 

The original points start to wear from they day you fit them and need to be checked and adjusted now and again and a set of spares are cheap and fit in your boot and can be replaced by the roadside. Points tend not to have the instantaneous fail of electronic items.

 

Electronic replacement points are cheap enough to keep a spare set in the boot, but like all electronics if they fail the car stops wherever you happen to be even if it is not a good spot.

 

Electronic distributors can be very expensive so you probably won't carry a spare and although quite reliable one day will fail, perhaps many thousands of miles and years later.

 

Whatever you eventually decide remember your original Lucas 22D distributor is now very rare, sought after and very valuable - do not dispose of it if you replace, clean lubricate and store in an airtight bag with a silica sachet.

 

Me, I have electronic points, the car came with them fitted, with a spare set in the boot and I also carry a set of mechanical points as well - just in case.

 

If you drive your car as a normal road car and what you have is working well I would recommend you stick with it unless you need to get rid of surplus cash.

 

 

 

Alan

[Steves_TR6 54]

Hi Andy, perhaps ask yourself what you want to address/achieve ?

 

If you want to avoid having to check and set points, then the 'points replacement' electronic ignition devices that fit inside the distribitor do this, and work reliably until one day when they stop.

 

Perhaps you want to address the fact that the distributor is now 40 years old, probably worn and was frankly not exactly 'advanced' 40 years ago, then perhaps one of the replacement distributors, eg 123ignition, they even do one with bluetooth now!

 

Or maybe you like to go the 'whole hog' and get rid of the distributor!, you can get mapped distributorless ignition systems but there is quite a lot of work, i've investigated but stopped short of action...... this option would allow ignition to be mapped to both engine speed and vacuum/throttle position, which i do like the sound of :-)

 

My tr6 has lumenition optically trigered 'points replacement' , it was fitted in about 1998 and is still going strong.

 

You pays your money and take your choice Andy!

 

Steve

Edited August 5, 2017 by SDerbyshire

[Peter Cobbold 91]

I'm about to upgrade my ignitition to get rid of those nasty plastic points.

With a set of fibre points from DD. Peter

Edited August 5, 2017 by Peter Cobbold

[AndyR100 28]

'Best value' is probably Aldon/Pertronix Ignitor.

Cheapest (buy a spare for the glovebox) is probably a Powerspark

Best.... I'll leave this to others as I suspect you will get plenty of variety of answers!

 

....... Andy

[DRD 5]

I am thinking of installing electronic ignition to my '72 UK Dec registered TR6. Looking for any advice on which is the best and the best value for money and tips on fitting. Thanks, Andy

I've got the Powerspark kit which seems ok and good value.

[kcsun 1]

+1 for Lumenition

 

kc

[RobH 125]

+1 for retaining points - I had a Pertronix unit fail at a most inconvenient time. Points may go slowly out of adjustment but they don't suddenly fail, at leat not the decent ones with a fibre cam.

[peejay4A 68]

Points do fail suddenly albeit rarely. I had a fibre heel set fail high resistance out of nowhere. The riveting on one of the contacts had loosened. Nothing's perfect.

Edited August 6, 2017 by peejay4A

[AarhusTr6 14]

Andy

 

curious on your rationale. Is it you expect better performance etc (ie full replacement inc coils).. If so, for me I also own a brand new car which is all computerised blah blah blah and I think that is why I wanted my 70s classic. So for me, I want to keep my points, fan belt etc . . I do not want to change the car and if I make another 20 years show my grandkids how cars really worked 'nabk in my day'.

 

I struggle with the upgrade issue as a whole as a newbie but do understand maybe preplacing poor quality Leyland crap when absolutely necessary.

 

Maybe this is more religious than technical :-)

 

Rich

[Cew 8]

+1 for Lumenition

 

kc

+2, My car had Lumenition on it when I bought it 10 years ago, not had an issue in 20000miles

[John L 16]

I have had plenty of satisfaction and fitted many to friends cars with Powerspark by http://www.simonbbc.com/

And you get a red rotorarm thrown in usually.

John

[Wally 0]

I am having trouble turning the key in my 1970 Tr6 - it takes about 10 minutes of frustrating jiggling the key to get it to fire up - and then it is perfect. I am wondering if anyone has some options for something new to install since I will be exploring fixing it this week. - I am not hung up keeping it original - just want something much easier and better - thank you for your help - Gary - Montreal Canada. 

[JochemsTR 16]

Gary,

are you sure it is your ignition causing the problem?

Jochem

[StuartG 3]

I used to have points replacement type fitted inside distributor until it failed on the off ramp of M40 on me 2 years ago ! Since replaced with original points which work fine although I have fitted the old fashioned Sparkrite electronic ignition that retains the points. I went down that route as went to Scotland last year and old tech. In middle of Scotland east to fix !

Having said all that I did fit Lumention to my previous Fiat X1/9 which ran perfectly for 8 years. Main reason for fitting to that car was that it was a bugger to get at the distributor so checking or changing points was not the piece of cake it is on a TR6

 

[AarhusTr6 14]

I fitted a Delco 6 Electronic Distributor as a temporary measure whilst I was going to send my D22 lucas of to the Dist Doctor.  Thing is, its running so well I am unsure on what gains I can get by sending off my old 22D...!

Rich

Edited July 21 by AarhusTr6

[Andy Moltu 3]

You could get a cheap electronic ignition kit and keep a spare in the boot. The electronic equivalent of a spare set of points. Are the more expensive ones more reliable? Or are they the same with a larger profit margin? Had a Piranha on the 6 for over 25 years, a Luminition on the Stag for over 10 and a cheapo Powerspark from ebay for a year.

As a cynic I would argue how do you know if the electronics are high quality in any of them?

Even with a worn distributor you will get less timing scatter from electronic ignition. The other thing to consider is that the quality of condensers that seem to be in circulation is shocking.

[DRD 5]

16 hours ago, AarhusTr6 said:

I fitted a Delco 6 Electronic Distributor as a temporary measure whilst I was going to send my D22 lucas of to the Dist Doctor.  Thing is, its running so well I am unsure on what gains I can get by sending off my old 22D...!

Rich

I was thinking of doing the same thing, I'd be interested to hear if you think the refurbed 22D is any better.

Cheers Darren

[stuart 268]

20 minutes ago, DRD said:

I was thinking of doing the same thing, I'd be interested to hear if you think the refurbed 22D is any better.

Cheers Darren

I always fit DD rebuilt Dizzys to all of my customers cars, With regards to the cheapo electronic ignition kits/distributors talk to Martin (DD) about them and he will tell you most have more scatter than a worn standard dizzy but what do you expect for £3.

Stuart.

[Tom Boyd 12]

6 hours ago, stuart said:

I always fit DD rebuilt Dizzys to all of my customers cars, With regards to the cheapo electronic ignition kits/distributors talk to Martin (DD) about them and he will tell you most have more scatter than a worn standard dizzy but what do you expect for £3.

Stuart.

Couldn't agree more with Stuart, all of our cars leave with DD distributors. Even my 2.5pi has one fitted, I took off a 100 mile old 123 dizzy and fitted Martins, feels sharper & can change the points etc on roadside if needed  

 

Tom

[DRD 5]

1 hour ago, Tom Boyd said:

Couldn't agree more with Stuart, all of our cars leave with DD distributors. Even my 2.5pi has one fitted, I took off a 100 mile old 123 dizzy and fitted Martins, feels sharper & can change the points etc on roadside if needed  

 

Tom

Well I'm going to try both on the rolling road and it will be interesting to see the results.

Cheers Darren

[Andy Moltu 3]

The other thing with these electronic dizzy's are the advance curves.

How do you know which, if any, are right? There may be 10 or more curves to choose from but will any replicate what the original dis when in good nick?

it gets even more complicated wit a modified engine.

[TriumphV8 17]

The ignition has been a weak point of engines all the time.

 

But we can be happy that all the theoretically not perfect solutions to bring a spark

to the correct cylinder ended with a close to perfect result referring to power and misfire.

 

Todays solution would be a crank triggered digitally prepared pulse of defined timing

and dwell time guided to a single coil for every cylinder to perform a powefull spark at

any rev and any load situation.

 

It is up to anybodys individual taste how much a Triumph owner wants to go that way away

from points. It is not needed for normal running of engine. If there is a problem it can be solved

with a repair of the original.

 

Replacing the points with an electronic item is a good idea but everybody should be aware that electronic

parts do not like heat. So this and all the next steps like 123 should be seen a bit critically. I would carry a

conventional distributor with me.

 

My personal view is on the dwell time because I have a high reving TR6 that needs a high spark rate at the limit

of the ignition system fitted. High tension coils need a time to build up a magnetic field to perform a powerfull

spark. That is called the dwell time and is from 2-10 milliseconds depending on the coil.

Both points and cheap electronics perform a dwell angle turning from the crank what becomes smaller when

crank rotates faster. That is not good and should be superseeded by a constant dwell time meeting the requirements

of the coil. It avoids overheating of coil at low revs and poor spark at high revs.

 

Single coils avoid distributor and all the parts that can fail and as the only deliver 1/3 of the former spark rate

they have no problems to deliver at high revs.

 

So it is more a personal taste how far to go with swap and not a single way that only will be the best. Many swaps

reported to give a new engine are simply related to a former rotten dizzy!

 

I have a full digital crank triggered ignition with a MSD6 multiple spark discharge.

I run this for 20 years at the V8 and 8 years on the 6 cylinder. Electronics is far away

from heat in the glove box and spare was never needed.